An eco-building expert is suing a holiday company for £1.4m after a fridge door onboard the yacht she had chartered sliced off the end of her finger.
Sara Turnbull sustained the horrifying injury during a Greek holiday in May 2018, which she says left her unable to draw or use a computer properly.
The door sliced off her right middle finger, which she says led to her having to resign as a partner in an architecture firm and hire staff to help her in other consultancy work.
She is now suing Brighton-based Neilson Active Holidays Ltd, the company she chartered the 32-foot six-person yacht from, blaming a ‘flimsy’ catch on the fridge door for her disastrous accident.
But in a trial at London’s High Court, the company denies liability and blames Ms Turnbull, claiming the fridge was safe and that she dropped the door ‘accidentally’ onto herself.
Judge Simon Brown heard the accident happened after Ms Turnbull chartered one of Neilson Active’s Greece-based fleet of Dufour 325 yachts in May 2018 for a week touring the Ionian Islands.
Ms Turnbull, a chartered environmentalist with a masters in architecture who is also on the board of Transport for London, described how she was on the last day of her holiday when she was injured.
She had gone to the heavy-lidded top-opening fridge and was grabbing a bottle of water when ‘suddenly and without warning the fridge door slammed shut,’ chopping off her fingertip.
Eco-building expert Sarah Turnbull outside London’s High Court, where she is seeking £1.4m in damages after losing her finger onboard a rented yacht
Ms Turnbull chartered a 32-foot, six-person yacht to sail around the majestic Ionian Islands
A generic shot believed to show the standard fridge on a Dufour 325 yacht, the model chartered by Ms Turnbull
‘I held the hinged lid open with my left hand. The hinge clip popped open and my left hand couldn’t hold the weight of the door,’ she told the judge.
‘The door slammed down.’
She said a latch, which should have held the fridge door in place while open, had ‘failed,’ causing the door to suddenly drop down onto her hand.
The court heard Ms Turnbull’s career had been significantly impacted by the accident, with her having to quit as a partner in an architecture firm ‘due to her inability to sketch and use a computer.’
And she has also had to employ an administrative assistant and a managing director for her social enterprise consultancy Wild Work Ltd – which is currently helping create a community wild swimming location in Thamesmead – due to her reduced ability to type.
Ms Turnbull claims that her injury was caused because the fridge lid could slam shut, rather than have a damped-closure mechanism, while it also had sharp corners and edges.
In the witness box, she told the judge that she was not claiming the latch on the fridge lid was broken, but that it was ‘flimsy’ and prone to ‘intermittent failure’.
But for the company, barrister Linda Nelson argued that the accident was not caused by any fault on its part, but by Ms Turnbull’s own actions, having dropped the door when she knew about the potential hazard due to a warning sign.
Some of Neilson Active Holidays Ltd’s fleet of yachts sit amid calm blue waters in Greece
‘There is no good basis for finding that the latch was not in good working order,’ she told the judge during a three-day trial last week.
‘The claimant had used the fridge without incident for a week. She had seen the trap hazard warning sign.
‘Our case is that the claimant dropped it accidentally on herself.’
She said the fridge had been built by the yacht manufacturer as standard and that all of the company’s Dufour 325 vessels have the same appliance fitted.
Importantly, a sign on the lid warned of the hazard, while the yacht manager had checked it after the accident and found it worked in good order, she added.
‘The fridge was not modified and the defendant has never had one fail or require fixing,’ she continued.
‘Dufour is one of the most well-known and established sailing yacht builders in the world.
One of Neilson Active Holidays Ltd’s Fleet of Dufour 325 yachts (not specifically the one rented by Ms Turnbull)
‘Hundreds, if not thousands, of identical fridge lids have been installed on similar yachts around the world.
‘Newer or more expensive yachts may have sophisticated damped-closing mechanisms, but that does not mean that the fittings on older models are inappropriate.
‘The position is analogous to car bonnets: older/cheaper cars have a stick to hold the bonnet open; newer/more expensive cars use a damper.
‘The galley space had been certified as compliant with safety regulations.
‘The lid/closing mechanism were reasonably safe…the fridge posed no more risk than any other hinged door or top closing container…it did not have unreasonably sharp corners/edges.’
‘She knew full well what the risks were and something went wrong. There’s very little that the defendant should have done to keep her safe.’
Ms Nelson said that Ms Turnbull’s claimed losses include over £1million in lost future earnings, and that due to her reduced ability to type, draw and write she had to employ an administrative assistant and managing director for her company Wild Work Ltd.
However, the judge is first being asked to decide whether the company was at fault before later going on to decide how much in compensation should be paid.
At the end of the trial, he reserved his judgment in the case, to be given a later date.
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